Workaround #: Go Opaque
Windows 10 brings complete new style, modern and see-through. However, the default transparency setting will cost more resources, leading to computer running slow Windows 10. To reclaim those resources, disable Transparency.
Step 1. Click Windows Start button and choose Settings -> Personalisation.
Step 2. Navigate to Colours and then scroll down the slider until the end. Turn off the option for “Make Start, taskbar and action center transparent”.
Manage Windows Update For Performance
Windows Update hogs resources when it runs in the background. You can configure it to run only at specific times. For example, when the device isn’t in operation. That means no more restarts while you’re in the middle of an important task.
Change Active Hours
To configure Windows Update to run only at specific hours:
This setting only limits the times during which Windows will install updates automatically. Windows Update will still download updates during those hours.
Set Your Internet Connection to Metered
If you have a limited bandwidth Wi-Fi connection, Windows Update can significantly impact your internet performance by downloading updates in the background.
You can prevent this by setting your connection to metered this will disable Windows Update, though some security patches may still download.
This only works with Wi-Fi networks, though a hack for applying this setting to Ethernet connections does exist.
Defragment The Hard Drive
If your laptop uses a hard drive, it might need to be defragged. Because HDDs access information sequentially, having information in multiple places increases the time the drive takes to access the information. Defragmenting your hard drive moves data that is on the drive into a logical formation, making it quicker to access.
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Use Readyboost To Speed Up Disk Caching
Windows 10 regularly stores cached data on your hard disk, and then when it needs the data, fetches it from there. The time it takes to fetch cached data depends on the speed of your hard disk. If you have a traditional hard disk instead of an SSD, theres a trick that can help speed up your cache: use Windows ReadyBoost feature. It tells Windows to cache data to a USB flash drive, which is faster than a hard disk. Fetching data from that speedier cache should speed up Windows.
First, plug a USB flash drive into one of your PCs USB ports. The flash drive needs to support at least USB 2.0, and preferably USB 3 or faster. The faster your flash drive, the more of a speed boost you should see. Also, look for a flash drive that is at least double the size of your PCs RAM for maximum performance.
After you plug in in the drive, open File Explorer and click This PC. Look for the flash drive. It may have an odd name, like UDISK 28X, or something even less-obvious. Right-click it, choose Properties and click the ReadyBoost tab.
Microsoft
Turn on ReadyBoost from this screen to speed up your PC.
Youll come to a screen that asks whether you want to use the flash drive as a cache and recommends a cache size. Leave the cache size as is or change it if you like. Then select Dedicate this device to ReadyBoost and click Apply and then click OK.
Fix 2 Free Up Windows 10 Disk Space And Increase C Drive Space
For some serious hard drive issues that might cause a hard drive overloaded and sluggish, you need the advanced help of professional toolkits! Here, EaseUS CleanGenius is recommended. Use it to clean up all the junk files at once for more free space.
1 – Clean up junk files
Step 1. DOWNLOAD and install EaseUS CleanGenius on your PC. To begin with, navigate to “Cleanup” and click “Scan”.
Step 2. EaseUS CleanGenius will start immediately to scan all the useless files, select system junk files and invalid entries and click “Clean” over all your PC.
Step 3. Once completes, you can see clearly how many MBs or GBs of data that are cleaned. Click “Done” to finish the process.
2 – Increase system C drive
If cleaning up junk files doesn’t make too much free space for you, another effective solution to Windows 10 suddenly slow problem is to simply expand your C drive with EaseUS Partition Master. Do it with the following steps.
Step 1. Click “Adjust with 1-Click” to extend C drive.
When your C drive is out of space, you will see the Low Disk Space alert on EaseUS Partition Master. Click the Adjust button to extend it.
Step 2. Click “OK” to extend C drive automatically.
Extra Option: You can also click “Manual Adjustment” to extend the C drive manually.
When turning to Manual Adjustment, select the C drive, and drag dots rightward to add more space to C drive. Click “OK” to confirm.
Step 3. Confirm to resolve low disk space in C drive
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Remove Unused Bloatware Software
Many PCs come with multiple pre-installed apps you don’t want or need, which are in large size and cause your computer in low disk space. To free up space and make your Windows 11/10 run faster, you can uninstall the bloatware.
Right-click the Start menu, choose “Control Panel” > “Programs” > click “Uninstall a program”. Select the programs you no longer need and click “Uninstall” at the top of the list.
Turn Off Window Transparency
You might not have noticed, but there are some subtle transparency effects built into Windows. Open the Start menu, for example, and you should see a faint, blurred impression of whatever lies behind it.
If you don’t want to sacrifice processing speed for such a small effect, you can turn it off entirely .
1. Click the Start button and click the Settings icon, which is shaped like a gear and is right above the Power icon.
2. Click “Personalization.”
4. Scroll down and turn off “Transparency effects” by sliding the switch to the left.
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Pc Booster #: Use Alternative Programs
Older PCs often have a problem with modern resources and graphics-intensive software.
Photoshop, for example, can slow down older laptops to a crawl. For this specific example, a less intensive program such as GIMPan open-source alternative to Photoshoprequires a fraction of the disk space and power while maintaining an adequate sophistication level.
Similarly, if you have a low-powered machine, you may want to try using a lightweight web-browser, such as Opera Lite and Firefox Lite.
Make a list of the programs you use most, and then do a bit of research. You might find that theres a much faster alternative.
How Do I Tune
To tune up your Windows 11/10 PC, follow these basic suggestions and you will have a tuned-up & optimized computer running fast.
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Analyze Your Web Browser
Minor adjustments surely help you to make a difference with the speed of your Laptop. A web browser you are using may slow down or speed up the rate at which web pages, videos, and images are loading. If you have been using a specific browser and notice that there is a delay time, then you should consider an alternative option with better loading speeds.
Not only the browser you use slows down your System when you are using it, but if you have a full cache that has not been removed in a while, it surely causes a lag in the performance. To solve this, you need to visit your browser settings and make sure that you clear the history, cache, and cookies from the browser.
Your cache only includes what you will get when you are visiting various websites. Many websites use cookies and ads to find out your browsing habits which you may click when you visit a website. A cache holds these files as information.
So if you spend plenty of time online, clearing cache will surely help you speed up your laptop. However, it is easy to fix. There are two methods to do this in popular web browsers:
- For Google Chrome:
- Go to Settings-> Privacy and Security
- Select Clear Browsing Data
You can see that Chrome allows you to delete data within a specific time period. But, if you never deleted the files in your cache before, you should select All time.
- Select -> Cookies and other site data, and Cached images and files.
- Select the Clear data option.
Recommendation #: Wise Care 365 Pc Cleaning And Speed
Fortunately, several utilities are available to hunt down and remove personal information and unwanted/unnecessary files and extensions. One popular program is Wise Care 365.
The software is FREE, but there is a paid Pro version that unlocks additional features.
This program is fast yet reliable. The application includes several optimization processes, such as Registry Cleaner, Common Cleaner, Advanced Cleaner, System Tuneup, Privacy Protector , and more.
Wise Care 365 is the fastest weve seen that produces very effective and safe results. If you navigate to the About Us > Awards webpage, youll see row upon row of awards from sources like Softpedia, PC World, PC Magazine, ZDNet, and more. No, this is not a sales pitch, although Ive used the software for over five years now without having any problems. Regardless, back up your system and important files before making any advanced changes, such as the Services optimization options found under System Tuneup > Startup Manager.
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Adjust Windows 10 Power Options For Better Performance
Windows 10 is designed to be energy efficient. By default, Microsoft sets all computers to a Balanced power plan. This plan automatically balances performance with energy consumption. If you are experiencing issues with the performance of Windows 10, you could try to change the power plan to High performance. This works as follows:
In the search box in the taskbar, type power options and click on the corresponding search result. A new window will now appear, where you can choose between three different power plans: Balanced, Power saver and High performance.
Check Your Power Plan
It is important to take a peek at your power plans in the Control Panel on a laptop.
For doing that, go to the Control panel-> System and Security-> Power Options. Here, you will find the power plan your laptop is currently running on. It is most likely to be Balanced mode. Now, you can either select High Performance mode if you need better performance and you have some heavy usage, or you can choose Power saver mode if you have light usage.
Step a) Select -> Settings apps System > Power & sleep option
Step b) Click the Additional power settings link.
Step c) Click the drop-down arrow on the right side to Show additional plans and select High Performance.
Step d) And then select the high-performance option.
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Ditch The Visual Effects
Windows 10 has various animations used throughout. While these visual effects afford a sense of style they can significantly slow down older devices. Thankfully they are easy to turn off.
Open the Windows Start Menu and type advanced system settings and select the top result. In the window that appears there is a section marked Performance, with a button for Settings.
Click this and a list of the various visual effects will appear. You can either untick the ones you think might be problematic, or simply select the Adjust for best performance option at the top. Remember to click ‘OK’ to save the changes.
Pc Booster #: Install A Third
Sometimes, even the fastest hardware gets bogged down. Theres no point in shelling out big money for a pricey SSD or even RAM upgrades if your Windows installation contains tens or hundreds of programs and apps that you never use.
Before you reach for the credit card, the first thing anyone with an ailing PC should do is make sure that the laptop is not clogged up with unnecessary data. Over time, various scraps of code build up like digital cobwebs, slowing your machine down and making it work harder. Your PC is also full of personal data used for tracking and marketing, not to mention devious purposes such as identity theft.
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Update Drivers And Apps
Out of date drivers, programs and Windows itself can cause the computer to run slowly. For example, faulty drivers stop Windows shutting down or cause it to start more slowly. Video card drivers are often updated to fix bugs and boost performance, and it is always a good idea to check that you have the latest version.
Even if Windows updates are automatic, go to Windows Update in the Control Panel and manually check for updates. Only essential ones are installed automatically and there may be useful optional ones available.
Drivers are programs that enable Windows to access hardware components like the video, sound, printer, scanner, webcam, and so on. Updating them is a pain and you have to identify the hardware, the drivers and version numbers, the hardware manufacturer’s website and the download page.
The free versions of tools such as SlimWare’s Slimware’s DriverUpdate or IObit’s Driver Booster should do the job for you, as they are like Windows Update for drivers.They identify the current drivers, check if there are updates, and then download and install them for you.
They solve a lot of problems. There are also paid-for options, such as the up-to-date Driver Talent utility.
Modify Startup Programs Using Ccleaner
We went through the features of CCleaner earlier in the guide, which you can check out by.
The the nice thing about this method is that you can do so many other things with CCleaner as well, which is why its not a big deal that its a third-party program.
Another great thing about it is that you can also see any scheduled tasks like automatic updates for certain applications and turn them off. This will prevent any unwanted tasks from starting up in the background. This is not possible to do with the basic Task Manager.
In order to enable or disable startup programs with CCleaner, all you need to is navigate to the Tools menu and select the Startup section.
From there you can select the Windows tab to see the same programs you would see from the Task Manager as well and the Scheduled Tasks tab will let you disable any automated tasks.
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Why Is My Computer So Slow All Of A Sudden
How often do you feel frustrated with your computer acting up, being slow, or freezing up? This list does not cover all the reasons, but when it comes to personal computers it should give you a head start on understanding what causes slow performance specifically for Windows-based machines. Here are some common reasons why Windows 10 running slow.
- Your computer was running for a long time without a reboot
- Not enough free hard drive space
- Hard drive corrupted or fragmented
- The computer is infected with a Virus or Malware
- Too many background programs
- Computer or processor is overheating
- Your version of Windows or other software is out of date
- Hardware failure…
Check For Viruses And Spyware
You can run the built-in Windows Defender or a third-party app to do this, but you’re best served by PCMag security guru Neil Rubenking’s top pick among malware-cleanup programs, Malwarebytes Anti-Malwareit’s free! But don’t forget to use ongoing anti-malware protection, too. Some of the AV products have a lighter footprint on system performance than others, and the lightest of all, according to Rubenking, is Webroot SecureAnywhere AntiVirus. Rubenking also awards 4.5-star-rated Editor’s Choices to Bitdefender’s and Kaspersky’s AV software. See his complete roundup of the best antivirus software for full details.
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Delete Unnecessary System Resources
Among the most important steps to take when your computer is showing signs of age is to use a file scanner to establish whether there may be any older files or folders that you haven’t used or accessed for a while. This might come in the form of older documents, or even data stored on your machine including cookies and temporary files that can be weighing down your PC.
Several tools exist, but one of the most widely used is CCleaner, a utility developed by Avast to clean potentially unwanted files and invalid Windows Registry entries from a computer. The app made the news in 2019 after it sustained a cyber attack in which hackers used it to inject malware into victims’ devices. Avast, however, claims that it’s addressed all of these issues, and CCleaner is still an incredibly useful tool to the extend we’d be willing to continue to recommend using it for these purposes.
The utility will scan the contents of your PC’s hard drive and search for any files or folders that haven’t been accessed in a long time. It’ll then delete any that you permit it to, while also examining any problems that may exist with the registry that could be slowing down your PC. Its tools tab also lets you uninstall programmes directly from the app, as opposed to within Control Panel, as well as turn off startup programmes and find really large files on your machine that are consuming memory.